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Terrifying prospects ...
Professor Stephen Hawking says self-learning artificial intelligence
poses a risk to the survival of humanity. Picture: AFP Photo / Justin
Tallis
Source: AFP
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IT’S only logical: Human beings don’t deserve to exist. Which is why
eminent astrophysicist Stephen Hawking wants our artificial
intelligence research aborted.
The wheelchair-ridden thinker told the BBC: “The development of
full artificial intelligence could spell the end of the human race.”
His comment came unexpectedly.
He
had been asked to express his thoughts on a recent revamp of his
computer-assisted speech system by Intel and machine-learning software
company Swiftkey.
Hawking suffers from amyotrophic lateral
sclerosis (ALS or Lou Gehrig’s disease). For decades he has been
scrolling a cursor through the alphabet, laboriously building words
through twitching his cheek.
Among other things, Hawking had been
working with Intel to integrate new features such as predictive text
with his existing suite of sensors to help the physically impaired
physicist “speak” through a voice synthesiser.
Experiments with EEG sensors to “read” Hawking’s brainwaves failed
to produce reliable results. His drooping eyes weren’t clear enough for
gaze sensors.
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Superseded model ... The fear of
robotic “children” outgrowing their “parents” has featured in movies and
books from Blade Runner to I, Robot.
Source: News Limited
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And when it comes to predictive test, nothing more than a
souped-up “learning” version of what your average smartphone user would
expect, Hawking himself initially preferred his time-tested
pick-and-choose method. But the electronic “shortcut” soon grew on him.
It’s
not that he’s a technophobe: Hawking has embraced a wide range of
technologies in his quest to communicate, research and extrapolate.
But the ability of the software to “learn” and “predict” his preference in words spooked the astrophysicist.
He says such primitive forms of artificial intelligence have proven very useful.
But he went on to say he feared the consequences of creating something smarter than us.
“It would take off on its own, and redesign itself at an ever-increasing rate,” he said.
“Humans, who are limited by slow biological evolution, couldn’t compete, and would be superseded.”
He’s not the only one to recently express such fears.
It’s been very much on the mind of technology entrepreneur Elon Musk, now chief executive of rocket-maker Space X.
He’s been even more evocative in his language.
“Summoning the demon” of self-learning artificial intelligence would be “potentially more dangerous than nukes”, he says.
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Demon-haunted ... Elon Musk, CEO of
Space Exploration Technologies Corp, has warned of the risk of
artificial intelligence. Source: AFP
Source: AFP
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“I think we should be very careful about artificial
intelligence. If I were to guess what our biggest existential threat is,
it’s probably that ... With artificial intelligence we are summoning
the demon. In all those stories where there’s the guy with the pentagram
and the holy water, it’s like yeah he’s sure he can control the demon.
Didn’t work out.”
It’s a threat which has caused the formation of ethics
panels and UN investigations, university reviews and consumer protection
reports.
All up, it seems the potential for such a threat is there: But it’s not a clear and present danger.
In
the meantime, the much more immediate fear is that thinking machines
will rapidly displace humans in the workforce: Sleepless, never tiring,
performing repetitive but complex task in an indefatigable manner.
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